...nevertheless I ended up greatly enjoying THE DRUM! Conceived as a vehicle to cash in on the popularity of child star Sabu (who'd just appeared in ELEPHANT BOY), THE DRUM is a film which fondly reminisces over the glory days of the British Empire. The film is set in the Northwest Frontier of India in the dying days of the Raj, where the occupying Brit troops are stiff-upper-lip possessing heroes and the Indians are divided into loyal subjects and dastardly moustache-twirling villains.
Into this mix is thrown Sabu, playing a slightly conceited but nonetheless loyal young prince, whose friendship with a youthful red-headed drummer leads to plenty of laughs. The plot begins aproper when the dastardly Prince Ghul (Raymond Massey) decides to lead an uprising against the just Captain Carruthers (Roger Livesey, the epitome of the kindly British gentleman).
Director Zoltan Korda possesses the ability to make his film look great, full of gung-ho battle scenes and convincing depictions of British colonialism - although the film was actually shot in Wales and most of the Indian characters are Brits in blackface! Still, Valerie Hobson is breathlessly beautiful as Carruther's sensitive wife, there's a pleasing hard edge to the violence (with severed heads tossed through windows and bloodshed) and a great climax which gives the film its title. They sure don't make 'em like this anymore!
Into this mix is thrown Sabu, playing a slightly conceited but nonetheless loyal young prince, whose friendship with a youthful red-headed drummer leads to plenty of laughs. The plot begins aproper when the dastardly Prince Ghul (Raymond Massey) decides to lead an uprising against the just Captain Carruthers (Roger Livesey, the epitome of the kindly British gentleman).
Director Zoltan Korda possesses the ability to make his film look great, full of gung-ho battle scenes and convincing depictions of British colonialism - although the film was actually shot in Wales and most of the Indian characters are Brits in blackface! Still, Valerie Hobson is breathlessly beautiful as Carruther's sensitive wife, there's a pleasing hard edge to the violence (with severed heads tossed through windows and bloodshed) and a great climax which gives the film its title. They sure don't make 'em like this anymore!